Saturday night in Seattle

I am back from our whirlwind trip through Washington and British Columbia. I didn't have time to blog (excuses, excuses), so this is late. Last Saturday night sitting in my hotel room I checked out three entertainment options. 1. Jazz Alley, a block from the hotel. It was some high school band. 2. Giggles comedy club. A competition. Just what I didn't need. 3. The Comedy Underground. Two-time What's So Funny? guest, Kyle Cease.

My mind was made up. I hopped in a cab down to Pioneer Square. Kyle was standing outside the club and kindly offered to comp me. Bonus. That's the perks of co-op radio, folks.

It was largely a good show. I particularly liked Stu Baker, who was assisted to the stage by two men. Turns out the 54-year-old Stu has Muscular Dystrophy. He killed. Sometimes comics with disabilities get an extra level of laughter and applause because the audience really wants to be supportive. This may or may not have been the case with Baker, but he deserved all he got and more. The guy is really funny. Here's a clip:



Next up was the headliner, Kyle Cease, who I'd seen twice previously, both times at Yuk Yuk's. He had a gorgeous Vancouver actress girlfriend who accompanied him to the radio show both times. Unfortunately, the couple broke up, which is one reason we haven't seen Kyle back in town. Too bad. The guy has a crazy frenetic energy. Too often, such energy is a substitute for comedy chops, but he makes me laugh. On this night, he performed a completely new set, including about 10-15 minutes on Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, who had died only 48 hours earlier. His closer, wherein he recaps the evening in slow motion, was the only thing the same, and even that is inherently different each time.

Here's a clip of Cease in action. For those of you wondering where you've seen him before, he played Bogey Lowenstein in 10 Things I Hate About You, as well as the slow clapper in Not Another Teen Movie. Or, more currently, maybe you saw his Comedy Central special, Kyle Cease: Weirder. Blacker. Dimpler. Either way, this is him:



I just checked the What's So Funny? podcast library and for some reason there's only one of the episodes with Kyle Cease. The other one, I guess, is lost forever. No problem because this first one was the better one (I have no idea, actually, but let's go with that). So here's Kyle Cease on his first appearance on What's So Funny? from October 25, 2005: